South Korean truck drivers who are on strike cross a road near a line of parked trucks on a road outside a container port in Incheon, South Korea on June 14, 2022, on the eighth day of protests over rising fuel costs that have further snarled global supply chains. Photo: AFP

South Korea's unionized truckers headed back on the roads on Wednesday after the union and the transport ministry reached a tentative late-night agreement, ending a nationwide strike that crippled ports and industrial hubs.

The transport ministry and truckers union agreed on late Tuesday to extend the truckers' minimum freight rates and continue discussing expanding a guarantee of minimum pay for carrying cargo to cover additional products. The transport ministry will also review expanding fuel subsidies. 

Shares in some affected industries rose in early trade, after the eight-day strike had delayed cargo shipments from autos to cement and alcohol, costing South Korea more than $1.2 billion in lost output and unfilled deliveries.

"So the strike has been called off until our demands are passed in parliament," said Park Jung-hoon, an official at the union's Busan chapter.

"In the next two to three days, 100 percent of unionized truckers at Busan port are expected to return to work after they get some rest. There might be some shippers who seek retributions, and in such cases, we will respond strongly."

The strike had been an early test of the new government of President Yoon Suk-yeol and had further stretched global supply chains.

Woo Sang-ho, the interim leader of the opposition liberal Democratic Party which has a majority in parliament, welcomed the agreement but said the issue of guaranteeing freight rates required legislation and called for "fundamental improvement" to address conditions faced by the truckers.

Reuters